Anyone who knows Eric knows that he writes about a little bit of everything, whether it's taking a trip down memory lane, or praising and/or criticizing something or someone.

The right-wing mind

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About this blog

By Eric Bergeson

Since 1997, Eric has owned and operated Bergeson Nursery, rural Fertile, MN, a business his grandfather started in 1937. With the active participation of his parents, who owned the business for the previous twenty five years, and his younger brother
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Since 1997, Eric has owned and operated Bergeson Nursery, rural Fertile, MN, a business his grandfather started in 1937. With the active participation of his parents, who owned the business for the previous twenty five years, and his younger brother Joe, who is now president of the company, the business has nearly tripled in size during Ericís ownership tenure.
The holder of a Master of Arts in History from the University of North Dakota, Eric has taught courses in history and political science at the University of Minnesota, Crookston. He is also an adjunct lecturer in history for Hamline University, St. Paul, MN.
Ericís hobbies include Minnesota Twins baseball, Bach organ music, bookstores, hiking, photography, singing old country music with his brother Joe, and watching the wildlife on the swamp in front of his house eight miles outside of Fertile, Minn.

Here you have the right-wing mind in all its ugly glory. Read the article. Contemplate it. You have a professional radio announcer saying that the families of the victims at Newtown can "go to hell."

The right-wing mind celebrates displays of strength against helpless victims whereever it sees it. Most of the time, the right-wing mind has the good sense to keep its ugly thoughts private. But nowadays, their deep sadism, their thrill at seeing power used to crush the weak and helpless is expressed over and over, more openly than in any non-fascist state in my knowledge.

Now, we see a radio host ranting to an audience he knows well, an audience that enjoys violence on a very deep level. If a few kindergarteners get in the way, well they can "go to hell." This man and his audience's right to arm themselves to the teeth is more important than keeping a few kids alive. He said it right there.

These people are sick.

I remember once when I had a couple of Brazilians working for me on a J-1 visa program. We weren't required to pay them much ($300 per month) because there were allegedly here to be "educated." We gave them the federal minimum, plus housing. Pretty meager. Trouble was, most farmers (some of them within 50 miles of here) on the program abused their workers, paying them less than $1 per hour, forcing them to work seven days per week, eighteen hours per day, and forcing them to sleep in shifts in overcrowded, filthy accomodations. I was appalled as I found out about this from the Brazilian students who worked for me.

So, I brought up these obvious and atrocious abuses in conversation in front of somebody I already knew to be a right-wing bigot. He immediately defended the farmers and praised them for finding a way to get cheap labor. The students, he said, must have known what they were getting into. If it is legal, hey, how can you fault anybody for taking advantage? And those kids are lucky to have a job at all! They probably came from worse conditions.

What I am getting at with these posts is that I think there is a deep sickness in the right-wing mind, particularly the right-wing religious mind. They are sadistic and mean. They relish expressions of male authority, even when it strays into abuse, at which point they are quick to forgive the perpetrator and to blame the victim. And they love violence, whether they do so openly, or covertly. I have heard these types defend bullying. They are always, always in favor of corporal punishment, sometimes administering it to their small children in front of others with a self-righteous joy I find repulsive. Authority! They worship it to the point of fetish.

Remember, according to Pew research, no group in American society was a stronger supporter of government-sponsored torture during the so-called "War on Terror" than evangelical Christians, who are by definition right-wing. It wasn't even close. There is simply no sicker an abuse of power than torture, no matter the circumstance. Yet 71% of evangelicals support it. I have a big problem with this. It indicates something severely wrong with their culture and their philosophy.

There is nothing Christian about these people's impulses, philosophy or actions. And yet they lord their holiness over the rest of us every chance they get.